We hastened to cheer our followers with news of the glorious feast, and, while we rested under our shady tree, heard the buffaloes coming upwards from the forest. We sallied forth and met them, when they were reinforced by a herd of some hundreds more coming down to enjoy the spray-shower. As the dark front pressed onward we fired, and retreated to load again under cover of the trees, until we checked and turned them.

Still, on we pressed towards the east, beneath dense forests with ever-dripping leaves and interlacing bush-rope, through mud, and grassy swamp, and brakes of date-palm, sometimes covering the ground like lowly bush, and at others rearing their plume-like tufts on tall and slender stems. The cataracts and islands opposite loomed grandly through the drenching mists, on which the shadows of our heads were each encircled by a halo of prismatic colours; or, in fact, a circular rainbow of small proportions, in consequence of its diminished distance from the eye,-and such as may often be observed, if one who passes over a dewy field will take the pains to seek it when a clear sun casts his shadow on the grass.

In places the forest extended to the verge, the keen, south-east wind eddying upward from the gulf withering off the projecting leaves as if they had been shorn to a level with the cliff, while in others were broad spaces of dark rock, wet and slippery with gelatinous weed. I approached the edge, and looked with awe and wonder at the water rushing unceasingly downward, till my friend avoided me as an enthusiast or one demented. I kneeled, and resting one hand upon the verge, looked down into the depths, when my little bush-boy came to catch me from the supposed danger, nor would he be satisfied till I had moved away.

We had nearly reached the termination of the forest, when I saw Chapman stop and poise his rifle, the attitude of precaution showing that no despicable enemy was before us. Within seventy yards were a hundred buffaloes, and, fortunately, to windward of us; for, though their eyes glared at us beneath their massive horns, they could not decide on charging before they made a circuit to get beneath our wind and ascertain our quality by the scent. Shot after shot checked them as they attempted it, and at length they turned and rushed tumultuously towards the cliff, halting on its very edge, their dark forms visible against the misty cloud, while we held our breath in momentary sympathy lest they should rush over. Again our bullets drove them from their position to refuge in the thickest palm-brakes, the wounded lagging in the coverts as the herd passed on. One, bleeding from his wounds, forced us in turn to cover of the trees, while another stood under a drooping date-palm, vainly endeavouring to charge while I approached to fire, and the little bush-boy climbed a tree to deliver his fatal assegai. Others

A couple of fine men, bearing the heavy lances used upon the river, had been sent by Mōshotláni, the petty chief at the ferry, to learn the object of our visit. We were glad now that our encounter with the buffaloes had enabled us to receive them hospitably, and promised to come onward to the haltingplace to-morrow, sending a messenger in due form to announce our arrival.

At night I observed two stars, Alpha Centauris and Alpha Lyræ, and the mean of both gave 17° 55′ 19′′ south, which, as the Falls were due east, I took to be their true latitude. The altitude of the spraycolumn, which, as the sun rose nearly behind it, loomed like a gigantic steam-cloud against the sky, was also taken with the sextant, and found to be approximately twelve hundred feet from the bottom of the chasm. In the rainy season, no doubt, it is much more, and, under favourable circumstances, it may be seen from heights more than fifty miles distant.

We walked up the western bank about a mile towards the ferry, catching every now and then glimpses of the river and the palm-clad islands, fastidiously choosing or rejecting one beautiful vista after another, as the scene of future photographic or artistic operations, admiring the groups of tallstemmed palm-trees, with the crowns of graceful, recurved fan-leaves, searching for the almost inedible fruit of the wild date, or eking out the time by cutting down one with a small hunting-knife, and digging out the heart, or "cabbage," at the base of the young leaves. We abandoned the old haltingplace, with all its accumulated insects, to our followers, and choosing a couple of fresh trees, fenced them round with palm-leaves, caring in this mild climate for no canopy but their shady, overhanging foliage. We celebrated the occasion by making a few "leather-jackets," or tough cakes of meal, roasting a few coffee berries which had been saved in case an invalid (as my friend unfortunately was that evening) should desire them. These, however, were unwonted delicacies. In consequence of our protracted journey, our favourite beverage had to be supplied by various substitutes-wild beans, roasted corn, or the smaller species of millet, the ground-nut, which contains so much essential oil that its kernel will burn for a minute as brightly as a sperm candle, but which, however, we were rarely able to purchase, and, lastly, shreds of pumpkin dried and roasted, which we at length persuaded ourselves to believe equal, if not superior, to the best Mocha.

After a visit from Mōshotláni, the petty chief of the ferry, and Madzekási, one of Dr. Livingstone's head men who had known me at Tete, and joyfully recognised me now, Edward Barry and I walked down to the Falls, and standing over the rapid of the Leaping Water as it tossed in wild

confusion beneath our feet, looked down far into the depths where the lower waters seemed hurrying east to escape the turmoil. We passed through the now solitary and deserted forest, finding only here and there the horns or refuse of a buffalo, and determined this time to go right to the eastern end, where, forming our ideas on Dr. Livingstone's picture and description, we expected to find the outlet. Beyond Garden Island we tested the breadth of the chasm by firing a rifle bullet point blank, or with the hundred yards' sight, and as it fell into the little pool lower than the point aimed at, I considered the distance to be somewhat more. In other parts, by measuring a base line and taking angles with a prismatic compass,

that the lower waters were flowing from the east end as well as the west to escape by this narrow gorge, which must in consequence be the outlet of the Zambesi. I did not yet like to give up the idea of a possible outlet at the eastern end, but I subsequently found that there was none.

And now we started early for the western end, and setting up his camera on the cliff overhanging the rapid of the Leaping Water, Chapman worked. with a perseverance worthy a better success to get a picture; but though the chemicals, carefully prepared before we left Daka, had worked most satisfactorily all the way, they now from some cause began to fail. He obtained, however, a view which shows the

we made the breadth about 140; while at the Buffaloes' Cliff, just opposite the island, I subsequently found it to be only 75 yards. We walked on through swampy grass some hundred yards beyond the termination of the forest, and suddenly were stopped by the deep chasm we had previously seen; not at the end, for we could still see waterfalls melting soft and grey into the distance for between a quarter and half a mile beyond, but as nearly as we could judge at a little more than onefourth from it. At first we thought this must be one of the rivers flowing in, but mounting a rock that, like a watch-tower, seemed to overhang the precipice, Edward, who was perhaps less impressed that I with ideas founded on previous description, first noted

formation of the chasm at its western end, and remains as indisputable evidence by which to test all other pictures and descriptions of that portion of the scenery it represents. For my own part, though difficulties insuperable to photography annoyed me less, my sketch, patiently as I worked at it, was but a feeble transcript of the wondrous scene before me. And when the rainbow, which at midday had shown but as a segment of the arch far down beneath us in the chasm, rose as the sun declined, till with its brilliant tints it spanned the entire scene, I could not but feel the impossibility of representing pure heavenly light with crude and earthly colours, and acknowledge the nothingness of human art before the mighty work of the Creator. Day after day I

spent in sketching the Falls from every available point, one of the most striking scenes being that where the comparatively smaller Falls of the eastern side are seen through the dark portals of the outlet. At every opportunity my friend and I endeavoured to gain as perfect an idea as possible of the general formation, by observing angles with sextants or compass on a base line, by firing bullets at known ranges, or by careful pacing; we traced the chasm of the lower river in doublings so abrupt, that at one point, overhanging a deep and quiet tarn, the observer may see at once straight up one reach and down the next, the cliff which separates the two being nearly a mile in length, more than 300 feet

outline. A coloured illustration, faithfully reduced from one of the series published by Messrs. Day and Son from my original paintings, represents the Falls as seen from the east end, with Garden Island in the distance, the remoter Western Falls being hidden from view by the spray-cloud. The headland of the outlet, with its forest crown, is seen opposite, and its course is indicated between the cliffs to the spectator's right.

It now only remained for us to complete our examination of the Falls by visiting the Garden Island, and for this purpose we crossed to the village of Mōshotláni to obtain leave to engage the | boatman of the rapids, Zanjueelah, in whose village

high, and only 115 yards across at its widest part. The next promontory is, if anything, more singular and picturesque, for there the cliffs, tall as in the other, are so thin that they lose almost the semblance of reality, and seem like profile scenes cut out for some gigantic theatre. From the eastern end of the chasm the view is equally picturesque, though it may be not so grand-the rocks being somewhat higher, the water consequently more shallow, and the cataracts, though many, are of no considerable magnitude, being often mere rills and spray-falls. Another difference is that the wind blowing almost continually from the south-east, the spray is driven westward, and a drier vegetation covers the rocks at the east end, though only a little to leeward the shower again becomes so dense that my sketch-book went to pieces, and I had to hold my paper face downward above my head while I made a hurried

a little lower down we found quite a collection of hippopotamus skulls and other trophies of the chase. Taking his formidable spear he led us to his canoe, hollowed like the rest from a single log, but unlike many of the clumsy abortions on the river: long, sharp, and narrow as a racing skiff, and straight as if a pine-tree had furnished the material-in fact, I believe it is the only one in which he makes the somewhat hazardous voyage to the Falls. We glided swiftly down the stream, avoiding the channels, which might have taken us to the larger Falls, and in consequence had to pass through all the intricacies of shallows, rapids, and small cascades, our skiff, notwithstanding her slight draught, repeatedly grinding on the rocks as the strong current launched us over them. Keep her end on to the stream,"

66

Published in the "Sunday at Home" for 1866,

was my half-uttered thought, but there was no need to express it in words, for I could see our boatman knew the importance of doing so as well as I. As we passed the deeper pools the hippopotami raised their heads like those of uncouth horses, the bright red orbits of the eyes, the little ears, and the protruding nostril, from which the condensed breath was ejected almost like the spouting of a whale, showing like vermilion in the sunlight; others, as we passed along the islands and disturbed them in some quiet rumination, rushed,

"Trampling their way through wood and brake,

And canes which crackling fell before their way," toward the water, and plunging headlong down the bank raised a surge that spread far into the quiet reaches, as if a small vessel had been launched, while if the water happened to be not deep, a wake would appear upon the surface as if a submarine steamer were plying beneath it.

not see.

The stream, more rapid and divided into shallower and more tortuous channels, was hurrying us on toward the verge; the black forest-crowned cliffs appeared beyond, but the chasm of course we could Its depth was only indicated by the rising mist, and on this, as we came closer and closer still, the sun, beginning to decline, just cast a segment of the bow so short as to show no visible curve, and so broad as to tint the whole height of the spray-cloud with its brilliant colours. This, broken as the curling mist was agitated by the gentle breeze, took the appearance of lambent flickering flames, of which some idea may be formed by any one who has watched the beautiful experiment of the chromatic fire-cloud, and will imagine the delicacy its vivid colours would assume if shown by the light of day.

We were now within ninety or a hundred yards of the Falls, and heading straight for them, when Zanjueelah, taking advantage of an eddy caused by a patch of rock upon our left, swerved suddenly to the right, and ran his canoe upon the shelving rock of a small cove on the eastern side of Garden Island, where, hauling her up a little without fastenings of any kind, we threaded the tangled little forest to the Doctor's Garden. We found the recent track of a hippopotamus within the enclosure, but could not discover any plants among the rank vegetation fostered by the moisture. We found the name of Dr. Livingstone, with the date of his first visit, 1855, inscribed upon a tree, and that of his brother Charles below it with 1861, and the broad arrow of the Government, but did not see that of Dr. Kirk, and did not cut our own, but passed onward to the cliff, which projects like a pier of solid masonry so far beyond the general line of the Falls as to narrow the chasm here to not more than seventy-five yards.

The view to the eastward was the only good one, and it was, indeed, magnificent; the Falls nearest us were narrowed and broken by projections of the rock, but others were of considerable magnitude, and in the rainy season, when the floods submerge all minor rocks, and even, as the natives told us, cover the garden on the island, the sheet of water pouring over the verge must be grand in the extreme, and much of that breaking into festoons, peculiar to comparatively small bodies of water falling to great depths, must disappear, though I doubt whether, even with the rise of sixteen feet spoken of by Dr. Kirk, Victoria can ever pour to the bottom of the ravine that green, translucent, and unbroken sweep

which, with a greater depth of water, and not half the height of fall, is the characteristic of Niagara. Looking as we did along this grand perspective of snow-white cataracts, the spray, less dense than to the westward, allowed us occasional glimpses even of the eastern end, about half way to which the southern cliff was broken by the dark portals of the outlet, while directly opposite us on our right was the precipice to which, on the first day of our visit, the buffalocs were driven. The diminution of our

shadows on the troubled water below enabled us almost for the first time to realise the idea of the immense depth; but the crowning glory of the scene was certainly the brilliant rainbow forming, except for the small segment cut out by the shadow of the rock we stood upon, a complete and perfect circle, and surrounded by another with reversed colours, fainter and more indefinite as it approached the thinner spaces in the mist.

Short, indeed, was the time allowed me for sketching; again and again I was warned that the day was waning, that paddling against the stream was heavy work, and it was not a road that men could travel in the dark. I closed my work reluctantly, and followed to the canoe; the water was baled out, and now commenced the struggle against the rushing stream, in which, perhaps, one who can, to some extent, appreciate the various dangers, feels more when compelled to sit as a helpless passenger than one who is totally inexperienced; but he too can understand and glory in the skill and courage of the veteran who commands the boat. See him now, erect and fearless in the narrow bow, as the water dances round the canoe, how firmly yet how rapidly he poles her against the current in the shallows, how quickly he catches up his paddle in the deeper water, how carefully he guides her across the smoother parts, his unerring eye watching, before he enters the curl of the various eddies, and with what judg ment he shoots, end on, into the exact place where it is just possible to ascend the successive rapids, jumping out at the proper moment to force her up the steep incline, and in again as soon as she is in the level waters. The passage of course up-stream was long and tedious, but danger and difficulty diminished as we advanced, and by sunset we reached our bivouac in safety.

It would be beyond the province of an artist to enter on a discussion of the geology of these Falls, but the impression on our minds was that nothing but volcanic agency could have produced so clear and well-defined a fissure, the opposite sides of which seem in many places to correspond as if they had but recently been torn asunder, and again might be united. I may remark that slight shocks of earthquake are by no means uncommon in Damara and Namaqua land, and that some of the hills there, especially the Brook Kaross mountain near Beer Sheba, are supposed to have been once volcanoes. Dr. Kirk also thinks the chasm of the Falls and lower river could have been formed by no other agency; he considered the rocks basaltic, and tried as we did to effect a descent, but, except for a short way downward at the eastern end, found it impossible to do so.

As it is hopeless by mere description to convey anything like a clear idea of the extraordinary windings of this gigantic chasm, I have thought it best to repeat from the work published by Messrs. Day and Son a plan or bird's-eye view, constructed from the most careful measurements my companion

and I were able to obtain, premising that the "smoke," or spray-cloud, has necessarily been omitted for the sake of distinctness of detail. I will only mention that Dr. Livingstone's measurement of the depth of the fall was "more than 310 feet"-his line resting on a heap of rocks which did not allow it

to reach the bottom. We had no line, but tried it by angular measurements with a sextant; we thought it 350, but for want of definite points at top and bottom could not attach much certainty to our result. Sir R. Glynn, however, found that even a line of 400 feet was insufficient. I suppose, in round numbers, the latter will be found quite near enough, until increased facilities of travelling shall tempt to the spot some one with time and facilities for surveying it more accurately. What other measurements we were able to make are given as references to the plan or bird's-eye view.

Comparing the Victoria and the Niagara Falls, Mr. Layard, who had seen Niagara, when he inspected my pictures in Capetown, declared that the Victoria must be the grander of the two, and many other persons have expressed a similar opinion. A beautiful set of stereoscopes of Niagara were shown me at the Cape, and imperfectly as even these enabled me to judge, the massive sheet of water pouring unbroken over the cliffs, the possibility of passing between the rock and the liquid translucent screen, of obtaining a view of the full front of the great cataracts for miles along the lower river, and, more than all, the strange fantastic forms of frozen spray or icicles in winter, must impart to the American Falls a character so different as to preclude comparison between them. The African Falls are, however, more than double the height, and I believe of greater extent, and in the flooded season the volume of water pouring over them must almost, if not quite, rival that of Niagara. Besides which, the wondrous altitude of the spray-cloud, the numberless views that may be taken, the surpassing brilliancy of the rainbow, the gorgeous tropical vegetation, and the wild forms of animal life with which it is surrounded, combine all possible elements of beauty, of romantic adventure, and magnificence.

Sonnets of the Sacred Year.

BY THE REV. S. J. STONE, M.A.

TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. "He took him aside from the multitude... They were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well."-St. Mark vii. 33, 37.

DRAW

SE

THE MANDARIN'S DAUGHTER.

CHAPTER XIV.-A CHINESE WEDDING.

EVERAL days after this interview with the mandarin and his daughter, I proceeded to meet them according to appointment. When we reached the house we found them ready to start in their sedan-chairs. The chair-bearers were dressed in the livery of their master, and as it would be dark on their return, each carried a lantern with the mandarin's name and titles inscribed on its paper covering. When they arrived at their destination the gentlemen were ushered into the apartment set aside for the male visitors, and A-Lee went into the one for the ladies. After being introduced to the chief persons of the company, I inquired in whose house we were.

Meng-kee replied, "This is the residence of the bridegroom's father and family, and where we await the coming home of his bride, who will afterwards live with him in the house."

"Why, that is the reverse of our marriage custom, for the bridegroom proceeds to his father-in-law's house and takes away his bride to an independent home of his own."

"There are instances of that kind among us, where the bridegroom is a Government official, but these are rare. In other cases, such as the one before us, the young wives are always brought to their father-in-law's house, for it is considered a breach of filial duty for the son to set up a household of his own while the father lives. In this house there are four married sons, and this marriage will make a fifth, so that there are a good number of wives in the establishment, including the father's secondary wives. But the first wife is mistress over all. These young wives are not only subordinate to her, but they are taught that their most binding duty is to obey and serve her."

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Well," I thought, "these are privileges for old ladies with a vengeance! Wouldn't our British mothers-in-law glory in having such power by Act of Parliament?"

Meng-kee now pointed to a doorway with a screen before it, and asked me to follow him into the hall. On entering we perceived a. narrow table on the right hand of the door, covered with sweetmeats and fruit, having two small wax candles burning at each end. On the side of the hall opposite to this was the picture of a deified hero, with the ancestral tablet below, resting on the family altar, before which incense sticks were burning and filling the hall

"The Lord my Saviour hath done all things well."

stood a wax candle about three feet high and three inches in diameter. On a table standing before the family altar were placed at one end more than twenty female garments and a pair of small embroidered shoes. At the other end were packets of red paper, containing pieces of gold and silver coins, and in the middle was a tray, with a cincture for the waist, made of solid gold, a splendid large buckle for it, a handsome pin for the bosom, and several rings, all of gold. These were presents to the bride from various friends and relatives, the mandarin and his daughter being among the donors. The table was covered with a red velvet cloth embroidered with gold thread, and at each end of it stood a chair with a similar cloth upon it.